Terex Earnings Preview

After beating estimates last quarter by $0.08, Terex (NYS: TEX) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Terex is a global manufacturer of capital equipment focused on delivering reliable, customer-relevant solutions for the construction, infrastructure, quarrying, surface mining, shipping, transportation, power, and energy industries.

What analysts say:

Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Terex with 10 of 16 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Terex as much as competitor Manitowoc Company overall. Eight out of 13 analysts rate Manitowoc Company a buy compared to six of 16 for Terex. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.

Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.91 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 43.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.25 per share. Estimates range from $0.20 to $0.41.

What our community says:CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 98.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large is in line with the All-Stars, with 95.5% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Terex and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 388 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Terex's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Traditionally, margins serve as an illustration of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Terex's gross margins, which reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs, have been rising year over year for the last four quarters. See how Terex has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

15.3%

14.4%

13.3%

14.0%

Operating Margin

2.9%

0.5%

(0.7%)

(0%)

Net Margin

2.0%

0%

0.9%

(3.4%)

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Terex movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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